The Great Revolution
"Every battle was a Stalingrad, every campaign a Verdun, every victory a Thermopylae. You think you know war? You know nothing." -- Shock Major Strauss describing the Great Revolution The Great Revolution (also known as the Last Great Revolution, the First War of Uprising or simply the Great War) was the very first open armed conflict between kids and adults on planet Earth. Dubbed a "revolution" due to the nature of the conflict in its early days, the conflict escalated into a six year war of global genocide between the kids/teens and adults of the human race. The war was waged between the forces of the Kid's Militiant Directorate (KMD) and a loose alliance of the countries of the world, dubbed the Coalition of World Nations. The war ended with the defeat of the Directorate, the absolute destruction of over 90% of the Earth's natural ecosystem and the near extinction of the human race and the Earth's wildlife. The war was characterized by the heavy use of Weapons of Mass Destruction and the total disregard on both sides for the far-reaching moral, ethical and global consequences of their actions. The aftermath of the war would go on to affect humanity and the rest of the galaxy for centuries after its conclusion. Following the end of the war, survivors of the KMD on Earth embarked on a mass exodus to Mars, where they established a new civilization that would eventually grow to become the United Systems Federation (USF). On Earth, the actions of the surviving adult powers would eventually lead to a second revolution, sparking a never ending cycle of war and rebellion between kids and adults on Earth that would persist across the centuries into the modern era. Indirectly, the Great Revolution had a larger impact on the history of the galaxy as a whole than almost any other conflict to date. Up until the start of the Great Galactic War, the Great Revolution was the most devastating and bloody conflict in human history and remains the most horrific war ever fought between human beings. Note, historical dates use Federation dating system (B.E. = Before Exodus, A.E. = After Exodus) Pre-War Events 'Anhur Changes Policy (February, 11 B.E.)' In it's waning days, the government of the National Republic of Anhur, faced with a growing economic crisis and the fallout of the auspices of several incompetent leaders, began developing radical new policies in a desperate attempt to secure their nation's future. However, most of these policies and projects yielded few results and were scrapped due to their ineffectivity. Finally, the governemnt came up with a desperate, longterm plan to insure national prosperity. The plan was simple: dump millions into the school system and revamp the educational process, in an attempt to foster the talents of the next generation in the hope that their introduction into the work force would be enough to halt national stagnation. This led to riggerous educational expectations at early ages, intensive work loads and oppressive school enviroments. To insure maximum cooperation with their policies, the government instuited the student reinforcement act, which authorized the use of security forces to enforce the governments educational policies in the school systems. Schools turned into educational work camps, freedoms were restricted and the many elements of school culture were repressed to insure maximum student effeciency. This of course, led to conflict with the independent student body and local student governments, who asserted that the new laws were unilateral in nature and infringed on the sovereign authority of the student governments to create and enforce their own local policies. Hostilities between the student governments and local leaders began to boil over into the general student body and many indepedent idealists became embroiled in the ongoing rights struggle. 'The Student Right's Struggle (October, 11 B.E.)' The student governments were quick to organize a response, in the form of a six month long campaign to repeal the new policies in court. Unfortunately, due to overwhelming public and governmental support, the campaign failed. Unperturbed, the student governments switched tactics and began organizing a series of protests and boycott marches in order to raise awarness about the unfair conditions enforced by the new laws. However, these peaceful attempts to change or at the very least, soften the new policies, were met by overwhelming hostility from local politicians and leaders across the country. Due to rampant police action and mass media censorship, most of these protests were dissolved before they could make any headway. Those that managed to get off the ground were quickly contained and isolated by local police forces, to prevent them from spreading their message. In response, representatives from student governments across the country came together to form a United Student Council, in order to better prepare and coordinate future protests, as well as evade police response. Both sides intensified their efforts, in a hope that their opponents would cave in or back down. Things eventually came to a head at the Sarvogan peace march, where student protesters were met by an overwhemling military response from local state forces. The ensuing violence resulted in dozens wounded and at least five dead, leading protesters around the country to dub the event the Sarvogan Massacre. The Massacre shook the student community to its core and opened the eyes of many to the reality that the peacful protest would not be enough. In response, many student leaders begant to consider more violent means of protest. A strong proponent of this new path of thinking was a young idealist named Jack Schmitt. 'Rylander's Rebellion (February, 10 B.E.)' In February 10 B.E., almost four months after the Sarvogan Massacre, a student activist by the name of Aleksander Rylander decided to test a new method of protest. Rylander gathered a small core of his like minded peers from the local student government and forcibly occupied the main building of his school. Armed with weapons acquired from black market sources and over a dozen faculty hostages, Rylander's rebels entered into a standoff with local police forces that lasted for over a week. Capitalizing on the massive media coverage of the standoff, Rylander's rebels publically demanded over live broadcast, the immediate repealment of the student laws and the opening of negotiations between the Anhurian government and the United Student Council. Despite the huge amount of publicity garned by the standoff, the government refused to backdown and on the 9th day of the standoff, police SWAT forces stormed the building, forcing Rylander's forces to enter into an intense firefight with the local forces. The battle ended with the deaths of half the rebels and SWAT forces, as well as two hostages who had been caught in the crossfire. The remainder of Rylander's rebels were taken into custody and the hostages were released. Rylander himself survived and although he and his remaining rebels were tried in national court, their minor status allowed them to avoid capital punishment and they were instead sentenced to fifty years imprisonment. Despite the failure of the rebellion, Rylander's armed stand against the government garnered more media attention and public renown than any other student organized event before and sparked renewed dialogue betwen the United Student Council and the Anhurian Government. These results galvanised a new school of thought amongst the student governments, that began to consider armed uprising as a more effecient method of provoking the changes they so desperatly desired. With the memory of the Sarvogan Massacre still fresh in their minds, many higher members of the Council began to adopt this school of thought and plans for future uprisings were developed. However, many still held out hope that the renewed dialogue with the Anhurian Government would allow them to reppeal the laws peacefully. 'The Final Peace March (August-September, 10 B.E.)' Hoping to capitalize on the renewed national attention garnered by Rylander's Rebellion, the remaining members of the peae faction on the United Student Council launched a final bid to secure negotiations with the Anhurian Government into reppealing the student laws. Under the new laws, full summer vacations were drastically reduced, but students were still allowed a single month long study break in August to recooperate for the next school year. The peace faction used this time to finalize the preperations for what would be their largest protest effort to date. When school finally started in September, the faction put its plans into effect. Starting on the first national day of school, schools on the east coast began a combination boycott/demonstration against the new laws by refusing to go to school and instead cutting classes to protest in a previously agreed upon public space. These efforts were coordinated to sweep the nation from school to school, going from east coast to west coast over the course of ten days. Police opposition to the demonstrations was fairly high, most demonstrations were shut down within hours of starting, their students forcibly returned to school or arrested for delinquency. However, the protests continued and managed to accumulate a great deal of attention from both local and national media. The Course of the War 'Notable Battles and Campaigns of the War' Following the Nuclear Blitz and the Coalition's subsequent Firestorm Campaign, the war fragmented into a dozen shifting fronts across the width and breadth of the entire globe. Due to the widespread Aftermath